A ‘drunk’ man who terrified a pensioner and her four-year-old granddaughter by waving a knife around has been jailed.

Glenn Morley, of Dowry Street, Accrington, went over to the woman who is in her sixties and started swearing at her and ‘waving’ a knife around, Burnley Crown Court heard.

Minutes before the ‘petrifying’ incident the father-of-one had pulled a knife on a taxi driver and hurled racial abuse at him before throwing a can at his head.

Morley, 22, pleaded guilty to two counts of threats with a bladed article and racially aggravated assault by beating.

He was jailed for 18 months.

Emma Kehoe, prosecuting, said both incidents happened on the morning of April 11 this year on Havelock Street in Oswaldtwistle.

The court was told how Morley was picked up by taxi driver Saqib Ashraf however he started swearing and racially abusing him for ‘honking his horn’ to signal he had arrived.

Miss Kehoe said Morley then pulled out a knife from a leather case before Mr Ashraf stopped the car and told him to get out.

Outside the taxi Morley threw a can at his head before saying ‘******* come out and I’ll show you’.

The court heard how he then approached the grandmother who was ‘holding hands’ with her four-year-old granddaughter and began ‘touching her shoulder’.

He then said: “Hello pretty little girl. Can I give you some money?”

When the grandmother said no Morley became ‘annoyed’ and pulled out the knife.

Miss Kehoe told the court how the elderly victim was ‘petrified’ and her granddaughter was ‘holding her hand tighter’.

The former factory worker and landscape gardener then started waving the knife around and swearing at her before saying ‘I could cut you both up but I won’t’.

Police arrived at the scene and found the ‘terrified’ grandmother ‘in a heap on the floor in a bus shelter’.

A victim impact statement told how she had been ‘greatly affected’ by the incident and has trouble sleeping.

Her granddaughter also asks ‘’why did he say he would cut us up?’ and ‘what’s happened to the bad man with the horrible teeth?’, the court heard.

Miss Kehoe said Morley told police when interviewed that he was ‘exceptionally drunk’ and could remember ‘very little’.

Philip Holden, defending, conceded that there were ‘aggravating factors’ in the case.

He said: “It’s a bizarre offence for someone who has no previous convictions, is effectively of good character and who has no proper explanation or reasonable motive.

“He has shown remorse and is disgusted with himself for his behaviour.

“It’s a bizarre episode and not drunk alcohol since the incident.”

Judge Beverley Lunt said the victims had been left with ‘mental scars’.

Sentencing, she said: “This cases raises more questions than it answers. Why were you in the area? How did you get there? Why did you have the knife and use it to threaten people? The young girl is old enough to see and know what’s going on and have memories of it.

“Being drunk is not an explanation. There must be a risk that you will behave like this again in the future.”